Discussing the Shingles Chicken Pox Link

What is the shingles chicken pox link?

While the two conditions are caused by the same virus, the difference between the shingles and chicken pox illnesses can be confused by many people, and often most don't develop a full understanding of what each of these illnesses represents and who is most at risk.

Many people have heard of chicken pox at one point or another, but are less familiar with shingles as it appears to be a less common condition that people experience throughout their lifetime.

Learning the difference between the two conditions and what the connection is will help get it clear in your mind which you may be at risk for and what the individual symptoms of each illness include. Then, you can also get clear in your mind what methods, if any, you must use in order to prevent and treat the condition so you can get back to living your life normally again.

Here is some of the information you'll want to know about the shingles chicken pox connection.

The Childhood Illness

Most adults can either remember a time or have pictures of a time when their entire body was covered in red spots. This is the common illness known as chicken pox and strikes up to 90% of the population, most commonly in babies and very young children.

The key point to remember about chicken pox is the fact that it's only going to hit you once (except for a very few rare cases).

The Adult Condition

Now, on the other side of the shingles chicken pox equation, shingles is the illness that is more commonly experienced by adults, who typically mistake it for another bout of the chicken box.

The fact of the matter is as mentioned above - chicken pox usually only occurs once in a lifetime, so if you have already had it, it's a pretty safe bet to say you don't have it again.

Instead, you're likely suffering from a case of shingles, which appears very much like chicken pox in that there is a red rash that is covering the body, but the main difference here is that shingles tends to occur in a band shape on the body and only on one side.

Chicken pox, on the other hand, falls over the entire body, so the differences in appearance of shingles chicken pox are quite extreme.

Painful Differences

Finally, another important note about the difference with shingles chicken pox is that shingles typically is the much more painful of the two conditions. With chicken pox, you may experience some itching and irritation, but shingles can be very painful, even after the rash has left the body.

In some situations, there is actual damage to the nerves due to the infection, which can stick around for quite some time.

Other side effects that may be present with shingles include fever, headache, nausea, chills, numbness, tingling, and a shooting pain on one side of the body. As the shingles erupts, you'll also get the blisters forming on the surface of the skin that are filled with a clear fluid. For the average person who is suffering from shingles, this can be quite a scary condition.

Again, the good news is that once you've had shingles, chances are you won't get it again. Like the chicken pox illness, most people only experience it once in a lifetime, after they have already had the chicken pox.

So keep these differences between shingles chicken pox in mind. One is predominately a childhood illness, while the other is more common in adult years and typically more painful as well.

To learn more about the shingles chicken pox connection and how the two diseases are related to each other, you may wish to read the other related shingles pages and articles.

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